Joe Goldberg’s Love Interests on ‘You,’ Ranked: Who’s Most Like Him?
Netflix’s You, which premiered in 2018, has steadily followed the burning, murderous passion of Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley). He justifies every killing behind protecting the lover in question, and ultimately himself. It’s hard to say whether he loves himself or the women in his life more.
Joe’s path with murder started at a young age when he killed his mother’s abusive boyfriend. He elected to be a hero and came to her rescue. His mother rewards him with shame and putting him into child protection.
Joe attempts to fix the absence of love in his life with vulnerable women he feels he needs to protect. He justifies stalking, public indecency, snooping, and murderous rage with being the safe, ultimately innocent guy. Joe has himself, and quite possibly the show’s audience because he narrates every episode.
While Joe has many lovers throughout the show’s four seasons, his deeper feelings are made apparent by how many people he kills for a particular women and if he lets her live. The same can be said for the women he becomes involved with.
Below, ahead of Season 4 Part 2 dropping on March 9, we rank Joe’s love interests by who matches his energy the most, from fulfilling his nerdy side to playing along with his killer instincts. How many more people need meet their untimely death before his true love accepts him, whoever she is?
You, Season 4 Part 2, Premiere, Thursday, March 9, Netflix
Karen Minty
The least problematic love interest, Karen Minty (Natalie Paul), brought out the only glimpse of growth in Joe we see. No killing for her, no stalking and no obsession. While Karen was a safe love interest for Joe, she was simply filling the void another woman left behind. Temptation was what led to Joe cheating on Karen and ending their relationship.
The Season 1 romance with his neighbor’s friend was short-lived and honestly unmemorable. Karen and Joe’s flame was a typical, boring, adult relationship. There was no murder to spice things up. Maybe it’s better she got out of there with a broken heart and her life.
Natalie Engler
We’ll say it: Joe is the reason Natalie Engler (Michaela McManus) is dead. He was the force behind the ax Love (Victoria Pedretti) used to kill her. If he wouldn’t have considered having an affair with his more-than-willing neighbor, his wife would’ve left her alone.
Natalie’s death added unnecessary fuel to the fire of Joe’s distaste of his marriage and being a father. The couple spent the rest of Season 3 covering up the murder.
Delilah Alves
In Season 2, Delilah Alves (Carmela Zumbado) was only supposed to rent a Los Angeles apartment to Joe. Instead, the two got caught up in their tortured pasts. The brief romance was ruptured by Delilah’s investigation of Joe. When she discovered his iconic glass cage in his storage locker, Joe locked her in. He wanted to release her, but Delilah was a victim of the wrong place at the wrong time. Love killed for Joe for the first time, fearful Delilah would expose him.
Joe had no clear indication of what his girlfriend was capable of doing. His carelessness puts an unnecessary notch on her belt of murder.
Guinevere Beck
We were introduced to Joe’s lust to kill for love through Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail). Known throughout Season 1 as Beck, she met Joe in the bookstore where he worked. His obsession with her quickly began. Joe just needed to tie up some loose ends before the couple could be together in peace. He first needed to kill her on-again, off-again boyfriend Benji (Lou Taylor Pucci). Her best friend, Peach (Shay Mitchell), wasn’t spared as her suspicions of him would’ve ruined the relationship.
Alas, it was Beck who ruined the relationship by freaking out about his obsession with her and killing Benji. Why couldn’t she see past all the red flags? Our dream author and book nerd couple was pulled out from under us as Joe had to choose his reputation over his feelings for Beck.
Marienne Bellamy
Putting his ability to kill aside, Marienne Bellamy (Tati Gabrielle) fit the inconspicuous book nerd Joe wants to be. Their meet-cute was literally at the local library where they worked together! He wanted their love so badly he was willing to move heaven and hell to get it. For Joe, this translated into killing and traveling great distances.
Joe removed her arrogant ex. He killed Love when she couldn’t accept that Marienne was his true love. Season 3 ended with us following him to Paris so he could escape his past. The hunt led him to London, the primary location of Season 4.
Marienne was nontoxic, brought zero drama and was never jealous. Her moment of weakness with Joe was handled with grace and maturity, something he should learn from. At least he refused to kill her when prompted to, allowing us to hopefully see more of her in the second half of Season 4.
Candace Stone
Candace Stone (Ambyr Childers) deserved better.
Can we blame her for wanting to expose Joe after he tried to kill her with a rock to the head and then buried her in a shallow grave? Sure, she cheated on Joe (of course he killed the guy), but that didn’t give him the right to give her an undignified funeral in the woods.
The original love interest returned in Season 2 to get closer to Joe to reveal his twisted past and present. She finally confessed to Love in the finale who she really was and everything Joe did to her. Already on her murderous passion streak, however, Love killed Candace to silence her for good.
Kate Galvin
Joe is reluctant to be someone’s knight in tarnished armor in Season 4. He’s beginning to realize it isn’t good for him. But in classic Joe fashion, he can’t hold himself back from getting caught up in a steamy moment.
Kate Galvin (Charlotte Ritchie) entered Season 4 as a bland leading love interest. We get it. She has a tortured past with a father that has too much money to do some actual good with. But that doesn’t mean she needed to bludgeon Joe with snide comments. Kate redeemed herself when she and Joe decided to help each other cover up a murder for which they could both be framed. Joe should also get some bonus points for refusing to follow mysterious texts demanding he kill her.
Will she live long enough to see the end of the second half of the season?
Love Quinn
The saying goes “I will kill for you ’til death do us part,” right?
Love Quinn has everyone, even Joe, beat as the ultimate killing-for-passion lover. In his refusal to kill for her, Joe painted Love as the deranged one with a craving for murder. The female serial killer wasn’t calculated like Joe. She often let her emotions take over, but there was no denying her burning passion. Love just wanted the best for her marriage and her child.
She killed Delilah, Candace, and Natalie. She attempted to kill Theo Engler (Dylan Arnold) before he could snitch. When none of that was enough for Joe, Love planned to kill him. If she couldn’t have him, no one could. As a successful murderer by this point, however, Joe counteracted her attack and killed her instead.
No matter how the series ends, there will never be someone as worthy enough to kill Joe as Love. She matched his energy perfectly, whether he wants to admit it or not.
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